My Town Magazine, Discover Queensland Edition 8th September 2014 Edition 41 | Page 30

Travel Blog By Deanne
Destination World –
Northern Territory Part 2

Now that we have departed from Kakadu, our travels lead us southward to
the rusty coloured landscape of central
Australia. Departing Katherine via the
Stuart Highway you are first struck
with the vastness of what is an almost
straight line of grey dappled road. If you
ever peruse a map of the Territory from
top to bottom or visa versa you will see
that at a length of 2,834 kilometres, the
highway joins Darwin to Port Augusta
South Australia.
If the idea of self-drive appeals to you
perhaps with the idea of experiencing
what it was like as a pioneer, then the
camping spots along the Stuart are
plentiful as are the towns dotted along
the ever changing colour palette. In fact
I think this journey is definitely for the
camper as the best way to soak up the
beauty of the outback is the stop on a
whim and make time your friend, time
to absorb and experience the tranquillity of nature at its finest.
The overall distance from Katherine to
Alice Springs is 1,181 kilometres so why

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rush it. The small town of Daly Waters
is just three kilometres west of the
highway on the southbound journey. The
name Daly Waters was given to a series
of natural springs by John McDouall
Stuart during his third attempt to cross
Australia from south to north, in 1861-2.
Stuart named the springs after the new
Governor of South Australia Sir Dominick Daly. In fact the entire history of
the region (as found on Wikipedia) is
extremely interesting so may I suggest
that it is a good read before embarking
on this holiday. Quite amusing is the fact
that the actually have one traffic light
in the town. Back on the highway once
more our next stop is Renner Springs.
The town is located in the heart of the
Barkly Tablelands cattle country. In fact,
the town promotes itself as “The Heart
of the Beef Country.” Like so many places along the Stuart Highway, it owes its
origins to the Australian Overland Telegraph Line. Each Easter, Renner Springs
has a local rodeo and race meeting that
attracts stockmen and punters from all
over the Northern Territory. Being such
a small community, the annual get-together, known as the Renner Springs
Races, is actually held in Tennant Creek.
Renner Springs is considered to be the
crossing point from a more tropical
landscape to the arid red center so well
portrayed in the travel books.

Churchill’s Head Rock, considered one
of Australia’s most crass tourist attractions, is on the old Stuart Highway 78
km south of Renner Springs. The rock,
on the east of the old highway, looks
vaguely like a profile of Winston Churchill. In order to make the image more
persuasive, someone has stuck a piece
of piping where the mouth should be so
that the profile appears to be smoking a
rather large cigar.
Our next leg is one of 508 kilometers
to Tennant Creek the fifth largest town
in the NT. Here you will find the junction between the Barkly and Stuart
Highways. The Barkly Tablelands are
considered to hold the best grazing land
and runs east from Tennant Creek to
the Queensland border. It is also known
as the Explorers Way and the Overlander. The population of Tennant Creek is
around 3,200 so you really do get the
sense that time has stood still for this
delightful town and her people.
Some may have heard of the Devils
Marbles, naturally formed rock piles
near the small town of Wauchope. Karlu
as it is known has been a photographers
ideal destination. As the sun goes down
the sky becomes a plethora of amazing
colours and the “marbles” are framed
to create many different shadows and